Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) remained hospitalized yesterday after being sent to the hospital on Wednesday night for the second time since Nov. 3, when she began a hunger strike to protest her detention over alleged corruption.
“Su was extremely weak and sick when she arrived on Wednesday night. We were planning to release her after administering several injections, but we decided to keep her in for more necessary medication,” said Chang Shih-chieh (張世杰), vice president of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Huwei Township (虎尾), Yunlin County.
Chang said Su continues to refuse to eat.
Meanwhile, Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文), who is also in detention over alleged corruption, has also begun a hunger strike. The Chiayi Detention Center said yesterday afternoon that Chen had stopped eating on Tuesday.
Liao Wen-chen (廖文珍), the detention house spokeswoman, said that guards had been unaware of Chen’s decision because he only told them he had no appetite.
Chen’s lawyer, Liu Tung-yi (劉烔意), held a press conference in Chiayi yesterday afternoon to publicize Chen’s will. The will, dated on Tuesday, said he had been falsely accused and the case against him was a political one under the veneer of a judicial process.
“I cannot stand being falsely accused. I am staging a hunger strike as a protest,” Chen said in a message to his wife. “If something adverse happens during the strike, please be strong in raising our children.”
Several of Chen’s supporters said they would fast outside the Chiayi Detention Center to show their support for Chen and to protest the judicial process.
Democratic Progressive Party spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said that Chen was detained on Oct. 28, but prosecutors have not questioned him since then.
“Prosecutors are detaining him for no reason,” Cheng said.
Su was detained over allegations she accepted NT$5 million (US$150,000) in bribes to fast-track the construction of a Yunlin County landfill project.
Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) visited Su yesterday morning. She criticized what she called “the flawed process” of Su’s detention and urged prosecutors to investigate allegations of corruption by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials.
When approached by reporters, Lu said that although she did not know the full details of Su’s case, the entire detention process was obviously not persuasive.
“Human rights and justice in Taiwan have taken a big step back since Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) became president,” Lu said. “Prosecutors are detaining and then they are trying to make the person confess before convicting them. This is wrong.”
Lu said she told Su that her hunger strike had served its purpose in attracting attention, but she had to start taking care of her health.
“I told her that health is the most important. I hope that she will listen to me,” Lu said.
She said that Hsinchu and Nantou counties and Keelung have corruption problems, but she had not seen prosecutors following those leads. She urged them to do so.
“The public requests fairness. That is all,” Lu said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January last year have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
The WHO ignored early COVID-19 warnings from Taiwan, US Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on Friday, as part of justification for Washington withdrawing from the global health body. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that the US was pulling out of the UN agency, as it failed to fulfill its responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO “ignored early COVID warnings from Taiwan in 2019 by pretending Taiwan did not exist, O’Neill wrote on X on Friday, Taiwan time. “It ignored rigorous science and promoted lockdowns.” The US will “continue international coordination on infectious
RSS